I am an experienced coffee professional with fifteen years in the agri-commodity industry. I have a master’s degree in strategic management and business development with a strong agricultural-economics focus. My specialist field is coffee, particularly relating to the specialty agronomy, post-harvest processing, a researcher, & and bringing the producer and the consumer together. Linking the specialty coffee trade to origin and bridging the gap between the two separate worlds has been my focus for the past seven years, using rapidly improving and available agri-tech systems. This has been the precursor for current development of sustainability in the coffee ecosystem, looking at the roles of deforestation, land-use and carbon emissions, as well as climate suitability modelling for green field coffee estates. Monitoring and Evaluation of coffee agricultural projects, coffee value chain, international development, & conservation through coffee, and coffee genetics (wild coffee species) have been additional focus points of my career. Working with coffee, tea, cocoa and other tropical product growers, traders, buyers, NGO's and government to construct value-added supply chains, while specifically looking at agroforestry.I have developed various business plans & agricultural models within East Africa, & have South African, Irish, and Swiss nationality. I have a valuable understanding of the African continent, its people, and cultures, and pragmatic understanding of how to achieve goals in this unique landscape. I am also fluent in Zulu and Xhosa, with basic Swahili. Furthermore, I own a small coffee farm farming both C.arabica, & the indigenous C.racemosa, as well as being a current licenced Q-Grader (Coffee Quality Institute). I have visited and consulted in fifteen various coffee growing origins in East Africa and Central America, and demonstrated expertise in coordinating a community of methodologies in agribusiness development, specifically in tropical agroforestry systems to leverage approaches to corporate sustainability programs, regenerative agriculture, and carbon insetting.I consult to sub-Saharan Africas largest coffee chain group, with a presence in six countries, as well as a development role in the largest fuel station retailers forecourt coffee solution. I do all the quality control and cupping for South Africa's second largest coffee roaster and largest supermarket chain.An experienced plenary speaker at events including RE:CO symposium SCA.Coffee verification services, ensuring deforestation free coffee & circular economy
Listed skills include Commodity, Business Strategy, Coffee, Trading, and 26 others.
